Raf Simons Named Chief Creative Officer of Calvin Klein

[Marc10]

"Otherwise there wouldn’t be pyramids".

So his work is like as important as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World ?

Please.........

You're kidding right? If not that's some terrible reading comprehension...

 

[YohjiAddict]

People splitting hairs in search of anything that allows them to discredit a designer they dislike while feigning indignation, is kind of a tradition around here. Raf has never been the exception and he never fails to deliver some eye-roll inducing remarks, to the delight of his many "haters".

 

[Lola701]

People splitting hairs in search of anything that allows them to discredit a designer they dislike while feigning indignation, is kind of a tradition around here. Raf has never been the exception and he never fails to deliver some eye-roll inducing remarks, to the delight of his many "haters".

Isn't it the case everywhere for everything?
I mean, a part from Margiela, i don't know one designer that doesn't have haters.
Margiela did not have to worry about it because he was never interested in being a public persona.

When you how people talk about a designer like Karl Lagerfeld like if he was just a random designer who started 20 years ago, you cannot be surprised by the reactions that someone like Raf could get...

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

You're kidding right? If not that's some terrible reading comprehension...

Isn't he saying " I didn't care about my archives / Now I do / Humanity should take care of the greatest things the men built such as pyramids for the next generations to see them".

So, either I am unable to read English ( as you kindly suggest ) or either he is saying his work should be treated and kept as archives like pyramids were for us to remember the history of ancient Egypt.

Am I getting it wrong ? I would be pleased to get your point of view...

 

[Creative]

People splitting hairs in search of anything that allows them to discredit a designer they dislike while feigning indignation, is kind of a tradition around here. Raf has never been the exception and he never fails to deliver some eye-roll inducing remarks, to the delight of his many "haters".

I used to respect Raf a lot. He did wonderful things at Jil Sander. But now he is on an ego trip that doesn't belong to him. He is just ridiculous at this point... His comments about everybody (Karl, Galliano, Hedi) are just absurd. Even the ones that he dedicates from himself... And the previous designers have way more legendary careers than he does... He is so terribly snob and pretentious, my gawd.

If you are not a fanboy that thinks everything "your" designer does and says is great you are a hater. Great. That's the level.

 

[anlabe32]

If you are not a fanboy that thinks everything "your" designer does and says is great you are a hater.

There's something in between a fanboy and someone who dislikes everyone and everything, it's called a "middle ground" or "golden mean"...

 

[YohjiAddict]

If you are not a fanboy that thinks everything "your" designer does and says is great you are a hater. Great. That's the level.

There's a reason why I put haters in quotation marks...worth noting that many members in here have not expressed anything but disdain for anything Raf-related in years, I'm obviously not against any and all forms of criticism but one wonders what is the point in transforming all of his threads into witch trials, seems kind of redundant...But at your request I will call you detractors, is that better?

Note: I'm anything but a Raf-fanboy

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

and btw I am not a hater, a lover, a "whatever".

I just prefer when designers don't comment ( like Martin Margiela) rather than those who patronize the whole industry thinking they seat and will seat on a marble chair forever...

Simons used to be this incredible person making fun of the fashion media with enigmatic interviews where his work was speaking for him.

Now he became a patronizing "I do better than you" designer who speaks too much.

 

[Pricciao]

Isn't he saying " I didn't care about my archives / Now I do / Humanity should take care of the greatest things the men built such as pyramids for the next generations to see them".

So, either I am unable to read English ( as you kindly suggest ) or either he is saying his work should be treated and kept as archives like pyramids were for us to remember the history of ancient Egypt.

Am I getting it wrong ? I would be pleased to get your point of view...

It's just a metaphor, why would you take it literally?
If I say this flower is red as fire, would you call 911 for me saying that?

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

calling 911 now, thanks for the tip

 

[Pricciao]

Ok, I'll catch a sec not bumping into their rescue.

So Raf said in the interview one show be more European and the other more American. If his brand being about punk is underwhelming, I don't expect CK being American would show any spectacle.

 

[Fotoholic24]

There's a reason why I put haters in quotation marks...worth noting that many members in here have not expressed anything but disdain for anything Raf-related in years, I'm obviously not against any and all forms of criticism but one wonders what is the point in transforming all of his threads into witch trials, seems kind of redundant...But at your request I will call you detractors, is that better?

Note: I'm anything but a Raf-fanboy

There is the key... On every Raf related thread i read the same "critique", most of the time by the same member. No matter if he is at Dior or CK, always the same...

 

[BetteT]

****

Moderators' Note:

Be careful! You may certainly offer your opinion once in a thread, hopefully with an explanation why you have that opinion and you may say that you disagree, and offer your reasons why. That is healthy debate.

However, please show utmost respect towards all other members and their opinions, including those with whom you do not agree.

Thanks!

 

[Nymphaea]

Raf Simons on Calvin Klein, His Latest Textiles Collection, and The Difference Between Fashion and Design

Today, textile company Kvadrat unveils its latest collection with Raf Simons. This is the first such line Simons has created for the brand since his debut at Calvin Klein, but it is far from the pair's first collaboration. Simons, whose background is in industrial design, started working with the European manufacturer in 2014, after being approached by the company's CEO, Anders Byriel.

Byriel, who has been with the company for 17 years, has a proven eye for fruitful partnerships."We got to know Raf when he worked at Jil Sander," Byriel explained via phone last week. "The exciting thing about connecting was that [Raf] loved our materials, without really knowing who we were. And that was a great starting point."

A great starting point, indeed. Below, Raf Simons speaks with us about this latest line, his recent debut at Calvin Klein, and the differences between fashion and design.

What was the initial appeal for you of working with Kvadrat on these textile collections?
For me it’s interesting because it relates to furniture design, because that’s actually my background. I studied industrial design in school, and I’ve always been very passionate about it, so when Anders came to propose [this idea to me] it felt very natural.

Fashion is so intense. Furniture had become something that I was always following, but I wasn’t actively doing anything with it. [Over the years], some requests had come in, but I thought this collaboration could be interesting because it does relate so much to what I do with fashion, and how we develop fabrics for the collections. One of the interesting things for me has been how this process compares to the process that we have to deal with in fashion. It’s very calming, and I take a lot of time with it.

I think Kvadrat has a very defined quality, a very defined style, and a very defined aesthetic. In the beginning, we were interested to see in what ways I could kind of create a small world within that larger world of theirs. For this new collection, we focused on one new quality, and then [placed] a huge amount of weight on color. But if I were to compare it to, for example, the amount of fabrics we develop for a fashion collection, you could say, “Oh, this is so small.” In fashion we might develop 60 fabrics in a season and it has to happen in three weeks. But with Kvadrat, we might work for almost a year to develop one new type of fabric. The idea is to make a timeless product that can keep evolving over the years. And lately that’s where I find it becomes very, very, interesting for me.

When [Kvadrat] first approached me I thought, “Ah, this is going to be about doing fabric that people are going to use to upholster their couch.” But now I’m more challenged by the idea that it relates to the concept of lifestyle. I think with my background as a furniture designer I was constantly thinking upholstery, couch, upholstery, couch. But then I heard very often for example that Anders would collaborate with artists and that they would do completely different things with [the products], like cover an opera house in fabric. And that’s becoming more and more interesting to me, because I think that’s when you start to see that the fabric can have a very different life of its own.

I had the opportunity to speak with Anders earlier this week and it was very interesting to hear a little bit about the influence of pointillism in this new collection. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
This collection is based on the idea of pointillism, so it’s very organic and it’s quite different from the pieces that we’ve done together in the past. In a pointillist painting, you often have a landscape scene. [With these textiles], we’ve sort of taken a fragment of [one of those landscapes]. In my imagination, that fragment then becomes its own landscape, or an abstraction of a landscape.

More and more, I’m interested in how we can create an environment, or a mood or a setting. In the design industry, I rarely feel that people are thinking within this context, other than what would have maybe been defined many years ago. For example, when I go into a design shop, or to a design fair, it always looks the same to me, and I wonder why.

With the presentation of this new line, we’re going to really play around with how we put [the fabrics] together so that they too will become a landscape. The presentation is going to be quite different from anything we’ve done before. Normally, we have quite a clean space, but now we have a really historical one. I’m interested to see how a new fabric in an old environment can create a new language, and a certain kind of mood.

It’s so interesting to hear about how you thought about the environment when you were working on this collection. How much would you say that you’re thinking about the environment in your fashion design work? Do you think a lot about how a woman who would wear one of your designs from Calvin Klein or previously from Dior operates within her environment, or are you more envisioning the creation of a collection as its own microcosm that is akin to a textile collection?
Both. Both because especially I think at Calvin Klein the brand stands so much for reality. I think it’s so different from Dior in a way, and that Dior’s so much more about fantasy. But even more importantly, I think Calvin Klein as a company came to a point where lots of people who were interested in high fashion were not even really looking at the brand anymore in that way. And it was because for so many years the brand had been focusing on things like jeans and underwear. Since the start of the company, all of these things—jeans, underwear, home, the collection—were equally important to Calvin. And I actually feel the exact same way about all of that, and that’s why I find it ultimately so challenging and so interesting.

That’s also why from the first moment [at Calvin], we had all these [projects] at the same time. When I entered [Calvin] last summer, I was astonished at how [differently] people outside and inside the company saw the label, the brand, and the products. And of course, we couldn’t talk to anybody or say anything [about our plans] until the first things were out. First there was By Appointment, and you saw some confusion, but at the same time, interest. I thought it would be more interesting to democratize the line, and to give access to everybody who might want to acquire an item, as opposed to only a famous person who walks the red carpet. Then there was the show, which was in a completely new environment, with a completely different cast, and with a very different aesthetic from what had been shown there in the last decade. Then there the Moonlight campaign. And suddenly everything became very clear. It was exactly the same situation back in the day at Dior, the only difference was at Dior it happened in six weeks, because we had to do it in six weeks. But once these first things are out it becomes very clear for people, and then everything calms down.

And I think that’s the thing that is so different about fashion and the design world. The design industry is very fragmented. I think everything comes together in a very unified way in fashion. It’s just how it operates. You have the campaign, the fashion show, the clothes, the stores and how they look, so everything is very, very, clear to the client. But in the design world, the system is so different. At a fashion brand, you have one creative director who has to set out one style, one identity, one environment, and one aesthetic to make the story very believable and very clear. And as the client you either connect with it or you don’t connect with it, but in design, I think it’s much more complicated.

Yeah. Do you think in that way the design world almost lends itself more easily to being a more democratic industry, as opposed to fashion, just getting back to what you were saying about what you’re trying to do at Calvin?
I don’t know the answer to that. The only thing that I always sit with, the question that I’ve been thinking about since I was in school, is why is it that people spend so much money on fashion and so little on design? I think it has something to do with the fact that you don’t walk in the street with [a piece of design], and that it’s not exposed in the same way.

I’m not talking the necessities, like a couch you’ll have for twenty years, but rather when someone buys a piece purely because they love the design. It’s something I find fascinating, and it’s something I’ve never quite understood. Personally, I like when an interior is a work in progress. And even if I keep a lot of furniture, it’s not that they’re always going to be in the same place. I might take them out and then come back to them or move them somewhere else. But it’s something I find interesting to kind of study because I think that for most people, it’s very different. They buy the table, the couch, the lamp—and that’s really it for the next 20-30 years. But their clothes are constantly changing and constantly evolving. And it’s not because they’re damaged. You know, it’s a different thing than purely talking about utility.

Jumping off that, how do you approach collecting pieces of furniture and design for your own home or work spaces, and how do you find that those pieces inform your work and the way you live your life?
I don’t know, I started looking at art when I was really young, like 15 or 16, and I really don’t know why. It wasn’t really part of my background, it was just something that happened and it’s been a constant in my life ever since. People ask me how many times a day or a week do I spend looking at this or that but it just happens. I automatically look around, or read about things, or look things up. For me, I think it’s a natural thing.

vogue

 

[TaylorBinque]

Warhol & I
Raf Simons, the chief creative officer of Calvin Klein, on art, fashion and admiring “people who have an opinion, even if it’s against me.”

Warhol & I
by Vanessa Friedman
When I first heard that one of Raf Simons’s Big New Ideas for the transformation of Calvin Klein was Andy Warhol, I rolled my eyes.

As an art-fashion play, it seemed a little obvious. A pop icon household name for a pop icon household name. The creative who embraced Campbell’s Soup being the symbol of a creative who embraced underwear. No matter that they (Calvin and Andy) actually used to hang out with the same crowd. That was then; this was mid-2017.

Mr. Simons, who is Belgian, had arrived the September before as the brand’s first chief creative officer, to much ballyhoo about the reinvention of an American icon, and much joy on the part of the fashion crowd. As a designer, he had been a hero of sorts to the style set since he introduced his own men’s wear brand in 1995, and then revived Jil Sander (in 2005) and Christian Dior (in 2012, after the John Galliano disgrace).

Now he had been handed the keys to the Klein kingdom, brought in to turn around what had become a stale brand living on past glory (albeit one with $8 billion in sales Redo the stores, rethink the lines, change the teams, upend the ad campaigns, reinvent the wheel, cause a ruckus.

His first show, in February 2017, was one of the most anticipated in New York in years. Everyone was so excited, he won the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards for both men’s and women’s wear before either collection had even been sold. By the second show, in September 2017, Warhol had entered the mix, along with quilts and prairie dresses and, later, hazmat suits. Mr. Simons was making a soup of American identity.

Turns out he was more prescient than anyone knew. Just a year later we are living in a Warhol moment inside a Warhol moment inside a Warhol moment — in a country run by the most Warholian president we have ever had, at a time when Instagram has made everyone an influencer for 15 minutes, during a year where the Warhol body of work is being celebrated as never before.

In late September, “Contact World,” an exhibition of almost 130,000 of the Warhol’s unseen photographs, opened at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. Next month, “Andy Warhol — From A to B and Back Again,” the first major retrospective of Warhol since 1989, will take place at the Whitney Museum in New York.

And on Oct. 26, an accompanying show of 48 of Warhol’s 102 shadow paintings, the series commissioned by the art dealer and collector Heiner Friedrich and first exhibited in 1979, will open to the public on the ground floor of the Calvin Klein headquarters on 39th Street, in the space where its fashion shows are held.

Amid it all is Mr. Simons, who, when he joined Calvin Klein in 2016, convinced Steve Shiffman, the chief executive, to cut a deal with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. It extended far beyond the typical one-off, pay-to-play artist-fashion collaboration (which have become as common as bugle beads these days) and would allow Mr. Simons unprecedented access to the Warhol archive for three years.

Now there are Warhol flower paintings on Calvin Klein jeans and denim jackets. Images from Warhol’s film “Kiss” on CK underwear. Warhol silk screens of a young Dennis Hopper and Sandra Brandt on Calvin towels and dinnerware. Prints from the disaster series of mangled cars and electric chairs on full New Look skirts and twisted tank tops. Stephen Sprouse portraits on fringed scarves.

All of that suggests that anyone trying to understand this weird Warhol moment could do worse than talk to Mr. Simons.

The Democratic Ideal
One of the few places in the world of Raf Simons where there are no Warhols is his home. Instead there is a curvy maraschino cherry red mohair sofa by the midcentury furniture maker Jean Royère, framed by two matching red mohair marshmallowlike chairs, around a Gio Ponti coffee table.

There are carefully constructed arrangements of Noguchi floor lamps. There is art by Cady Noland, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Isa Genzken and Sterling Ruby. There are Picasso ceramics and two Le Corbusier lamps from Chandigarh, the Indian city imagined by Nehru as the embodiment of the country’s modern ideals.

Mr. Simons, 50, moved into the apartment, a penthouse on the Far West Side of Chelsea framed by art galleries, five months ago, after living in the Stella Tower, the Art Deco apartment building in Hell’s Kitchen designed by Ralph Walker. Mr. Simons had moved there when he started at Calvin and was thinking about what language he wanted to build for the brand.

“I liked the idea of connecting an American major brand to an American major artist, whose body of work spoke about things very relevant to Calvin Klein,” he said, leaning back on his sofa. It was a week before the “Shadows” show would open. “I knew Calvin had links with artists, but the names that always came up were Donald Judd, Dan Flavin — minimalists, because he was a minimalist. Andy Warhol stood in the middle of the contemporary environment. In his approach, his vision, his obsession with superstars and famous people, his sense of commercial product, he was very democratic. Calvin is very democratic.”

Mr. Simons was wearing a big red and black sweater from his fall collection, half of it knitted inside out. (Exposing the underbelly of the country’s myths is one of his themes.) There were some yarn bits dangling.

Raf Simons at the Calvin Klein headquarters, where a show of 48 of Warhol’s 102 shadow paintings will open on Oct. 26.
2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Clement Pascal for The New York Times

They were the only loose ends in the apartment, which was pristine the way a gallery is, despite Mr. Simons’s large and hairy dog, a Beauceron named Luka after the Suzanne Vega song. (Luka has a Sterling Ruby-designed dog bed in the Calvin Klein offices, though much of Mr. Simons’s art and furniture seems to go back and forth.)

Of course, Mr. Simons would also like to own Warhols, he said, with a sort of bright-eyed desire. Especially “the disaster work — any car crash or disaster or electric chair. I just think they are so … it’s difficult to explain. When you say you adore that body of work, it seems like you are someone who adores violence and horror. With Warhol, I am more attracted to the work that doesn’t deal with famous people, because my world is already dealing so much with famous people.” (Calvin Klein had one of the more star-studded front rows at New York Fashion Week in September: Rami Malek, ASAP Rocky, Saoirse Ronan, Millie Bobby Brown, Selah Marley, Russell Westbrook, Trevor Noah and Jake Gyllenhaal were all there — to name a few.)

“Generally people don’t like to live with complicated subject matter,” Mr. Simons said. “But I have to feel the artwork stands for something that is important to me. I don’t like the idea that it has to fit my environment at all. I think that’s why I started looking at art and reading about it and embracing it — because it takes me away from my own work.”

“I have to feel the artwork stands for something that is important to me,” Mr. Simons said.
2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Clement Pascal for The New York Times

“Of the top three or five things that are important to me, outside of family and love, art is No. 1,” said Mr. Simons, who studied industrial design and has no formal fashion training. “It’s way more important than fashion. Sometimes I think it would be very attractive to be able to bring ideas out and not have to think about them in relation to a system or structure or commerce.”

Which is to say: to pull a Helmut Lang, a designer who walked away from fashion in 2005 and is now a sculptor on Long Island. “I think about it often,” Mr. Simons said. “I keep thinking of things I would like to do that are not fashion. Making movies, making art — the practice of making something. In fashion, the actual practice of being a designer has changed so much.”

With big brands like Calvin Klein, it does not involve much of what the world considers hands-on design, but it does involve a performative aspect, which is not really Mr. Simons’s thing. He is much less interested in being a public figure than many of his peers are, though he is getting more comfortable in the role.

(You can see the evolution in the “Dior & I” documentary that was made about his first year at Dior and now, at the end of shows, when he is mobbed by reporters and celebrities paying homage, and looks both embarrassed by the display and slightly pleased — and embarrassed that he is pleased.)

He doesn’t like to do interviews very much, but once he agrees and starts talking, he tends to treat them like long bouts of psychoanalysis in which he plays patient and doctor.

“It’s always on my mind,” he said. “Is this what you do? In a way I don’t think I’m a fashion designer. I used to be so upset when people called me that. Now it doesn’t matter so much.”

Selling Out
Jessica Morgan, the director of the Dia art foundation, which organized the “Shadows” show, sees Mr. Simons’s use of Warhol in his designs as reflecting the fascination with youth culture that is a hallmark of his men’s label. (Calvin Klein sponsored the restoration of all 102 canvases, which will go on display at Dia Beacon in their entirety in about three years, when a special gallery has been built.)

To Ms. Morgan. it’s his version of the way kids put posters or other pictures on their walls to define their own character.

This turns out to be pretty close to the truth. “With Dennis, Sandra, Stephen Sprouse — I liked the idea that Andy Warhol defined his heroes by making silk screens of them,” said Mr. Simons, who was by then drinking La Croix flavored seltzer, though not eating the snacks — mixed berries, Ladurée macarons, chocolate — that had appeared.

“Sometimes they got famous after the portrait. In my case, I was thinking who could be a symbol for the body of work I’m trying to shape at Calvin Klein? So I thought I might now and then, out of Warhol’s body of work, take people and reintroduce them to the audience as heroes of mine. Whether they are famous or not I don’t care so much, and for what reason I also don’t care.”

“Dennis Hopper was an incredible representation of the American cowboy. Sandra is someone I admire as a person, and I like the connection with Ingrid and Andy and Interview. Stephen Sprouse was one of the few American designers who had a kind of approach I link more to Europe and the people who inspired me, because they were fascinated by youth and generational dialogues, like Gaultier, Helmut Lang.”

Mr. Simons doesn’t care if people don’t really get that his use of Warhol is as much in the interests of Warhol, who tasked his foundation with licensing his work after his death in order to create income to support other artists, as in the interest of Calvin.

“If there’s a link between fashion and art, the assumption is always it’s the designer who wants to exploit it for commerce,” Mr. Simons said. “Not the artist who is exploiting the designer.”

Not that the Warhol foundation is exploiting Calvin Klein. It’s more like symbiosis. As to how much Calvin Klein paid for the licensing rights, Mr. Shiffman would not say, though he called it “an appropriate” number. According to the annual report of PVH Corp., the parent company, revenues for Calvin Klein increased by 10 percent in 2017.

Everyone Has an Opinion
Sometimes it’s hard during all the monologues and musing to figure out if Mr. Simons is talking about Warhol or himself. He’s very attracted, for example, to the idea that Warhol’s work has been re-evaluated over time, because though he won’t say it exactly, none of what he is trying to do at Calvin, including building Warhol into the brand vocabulary, will make sense unless he is given the time to layer it all in and let it percolate through the public consciousness.

“I used to be very fragile about how people would react to my work,” he said, “but I have become more and more at peace with the idea that bad reactions can also be good, because at least it’s a dialogue. But in that way I have to split up my reactions to it, and the reactions of the companies I work for, because a lot of companies seem most interested in the reactions of millions of people that I hardly know who they are. And everything has to work on a tiny screen, instantly. It’s not that difficult to make something that looks good on a tiny screen, and then in reality turns out to be a disaster on a person.

“The nature of fashion has changed. In Antwerp, I have more time to be quiet and to draw. Here, there’s no time to write things down. Everything is organized and in the agenda. It’s all talking. That’s the scale and intensity of the work. At Dior, I had the same sense of running against the clock, the fire at my heels.”

“I imagine there are people who think I was selling out by coming here, but it’s not such a problem for me,” Mr. Simons said of his move to Calvin Klein. “Not that I don’t care. I care a lot. But I don’t care so much about the fact people have an opinion.”
Clement Pascal for The New York Times

This sounds like a complaint, but it isn’t, really. When Mr. Simons left Dior, there was speculation that it was a protest against the increasingly hectic fashion system, but then he turned up at Calvin Klein, which is even bigger and more demanding, so that doesn’t seem to have been the issue. Mr. Simons has, essentially, traded up three times, each time for an evermore commercial, dominant brand, as he acknowledged.

“It’s my choice, my responsibility,” he said. “Clearly, I am attracted to it. I imagine there are people who think I was selling out by coming here, but it’s not such a problem for me. Not that I don’t care. I care a lot. But I don’t care so much about the fact people have an opinion. I actually admire people who have an opinion, even if it’s against me. The problem now in fashion is everything gets judged immediately.”

Behind his head, through three sets of floor-to-ceiling glass doors, the trees and bushes in pots on the terrace outside his apartment were being buffeted by the wind. Mr. Simons had bought the plants himself from the Chelsea flower market. He does not believe in gardeners or decorators, but he does believe in installers.

Later he would stop in at the Calvin headquarters to check on the installation of “Shadows,” which is especially challenging because each canvas has to be hung touching the other, so it looks like one continuous painting. But each canvas is not exactly alike; the more you look, the more differences you see. Which is a metaphor for something in fashion, if beholders care to think about it.

“The most interesting things happen over time, and sometimes you have to look at something for a long time to see if it makes sense,” Mr. Simons said. He was talking, once again, about Warhol. I think.

Correction: October 25, 2018
An earlier version of this article misstated when Andy Warhol's restored shadow paintings will go on display at Dia Beacon. It will be in three years, not five.

The New York Times

 

[perfect blue]

Can't wait to read that, thanks for sharing

 

[Benn98]

The suits are not happy! May well be the reason for Willy Vanderperre's sudden absence for the upcoming campaign, in favour of the photographer responsible for one of Kering's biggest cash cows. How transparent and desperate of them.

I hope Miuccia is taking notes!

PVH falls short of revenue estimates on softness in Calvin Klein

Nivedita Balu
3 MIN READ
NOVEMBER 30, 2018 / 12:12 AM / UPDATED 13 HOURS AGO

(Reuters) - Apparel maker PVH Corp (PVH.N) reported quarterly revenue on Thursday that missed Wall Street estimates for the first time in at least two years, due to weakness in its Calvin Klein business, sending its shares down nearly 8 percent after-hours.

Calvin Klein, PVH’s second biggest segment in sales after Tommy Hilfiger, relaunched and rebranded its jeans collection bringing a younger feel and a stronger assortment to stores.

Its most recent relaunch - Calvin Klein 205W39NYC - includes ready-to-wear luxury clothing such as oversized sweaters, tie-dyed dresses and plaid trousers.

“We are disappointed by the lack of return on our investments in our Calvin Klein 205W39NYC halo business,” said PVH’s Chief Executive Officer Emanuel Chirico.


Chrico said that some of the relaunched Calvin Klein Jeans “was too elevated” and did not sell as well as planned.

Several retailers, including more affordable brands like Urban Outfitters Inc (URBN.O) and Gap Inc (GPS.N), have launched apparel with styles from the 1990s and boosted their social media presence to attract millennials, their target shoppers.

PVH has also roped in millennial-favorite influencers such as singer Justin Beiber and has collaborated with Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) to set up pop-up stores where shoppers can try their jeans and order them on the online retailer’s app.

Despite its efforts, Calvin Klein’s third-quarter earnings, before taxes and interest, fell to $121 million, from $142 million a year earlier, mainly due to an increase in creative and marketing expenditures.


“We believe they (Calvin Klein) didn’t get the mix right in some places such as Macy’s and Amazon, the product might have been too fashion forward...I imagine that will be rectified,” said Jessica Ramirez, a retail analyst with Jane Hali & Associates.

Ramirez said it might have been a hiccup.

“Because it is a relaunch, they are still trying to get it right,” she said.

On the brighter side, PVH’s Tommy Hilfiger, which is banking on retro and streetwear trends, posted a 11 percent rise in quarterly revenue.

PVH raised its full year outlook going into the holiday quarter and now expects adjusted profit between $9.33 to $9.35 per share. It had previously forecast profit of $9.20 to $9.25 per share.

Excluding items, PVH earned $3.21 per share, topping the average estimate of $3.14, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net income attributable to the New York-based company rose 1.6 percent to $243.1 million, or $3.15 per share.

Total revenue rose 7 percent to $2.52 billion, but fell short of analysts’ estimate of $2.53 billion.

Reuters.com

 

[tatouejeremie]

let's see how long he'll last now that he really needs to start making some money for the suits

 

[dodencebt]

Maybe one more Kardashian in their ads will help.

 

[Lola701]

Already? That was quick...
The reviews of the collections are not so great and now this.
I think that the elaborated sets and huge retail spaces were a bit too ambitious for a brand like Calvin.

It’s such a complex business and Raf as a designer doesn’t make the stuff « easy ». It’s very pretentious and hard to understand.
Maybe it’s time for him to really think about what Calvin is really about. Americana is not Calvin.